The Hunger Games: Mockingjay To Be Split In Two, Release Dates Announced

It's suddenly become commonplace for film franchises based on young adult novel series to split the last adaptation into two features. It began a couple years ago with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Part II and most recently there is The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I and Part II. So it should come as no surprise that the third book in the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay, will be getting split in two as well and now both parts have release dates.

Planning way into the future, Lionsgate has informed Deadline that they are planning to release The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I on November 21, 2014 and Part II is set for November 20th, 2015. This follows in suit with the release date for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which will be arriving on November 22, 2013. It's interesting that they aren't going for a date earlier in the year given The Hunger Games' success this past March, however, both Deathly Hallows Part I and Breaking Dawn Part I found much success in the second to last month of the year (Breaking Dawn Part II will be released this November as well).

There is no director or writer currently attached to either Mockingjay movies, but one can guess that Lionsgate will probably hire one filmmaker for both (unless they really want to throw us a curveball. Francis Lawrence will be directing The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with returning stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Donald Sutherland, and Lenny Kravitz. It was also recently announced that Philip Seymour Hoffman will play Plutarch Heavensbee and Jena Malone will be Johanna Mason.